Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 3.djvu/397

 ARTICLES OF EXPORTATIOX. 381 Spanish dollars, or S3 cents per gallon. It is cal- culated that the best may be afforded, including duties, for seven Spanish dollars per picul, which is 37 cents, or 20d. per gallon, and the ordinary at 28 cents, or 15d. The first of the peculiar and most valued of the exports of the Indian islands is the clove, of the agriculture of which I have already furnished an ample account. The clove requires very little care or preservation as an article of commerce. It is simply packed in bags weighing 224 lbs. each, and in this state suffers no deterioration from keeping. For two centuries it has now been an article of rigid monopoly in culture and commerce, and du- ring that period sold to the consumer at a price exorbitantly beyond its natural value. As the commerce in it is at present conducted, it is too in- considerable to deserve much serious attention. It deserves, however, to be inquired, what circum- staiices have contributed to reduce the trade in an article of elegant and innocent luxury, for which nations of every rank of civilization have an univer- sal taste, to it present insignificant amount, and to point out the means by which the commerce in it may be enlarged, and the natural rights of the grower and consumer restored. We possess abun- dant facts to enable us to do this, and we have only to apply to them the acknowledged j)rin- ciple, that a free competition alone can insure to